CORVALLIS – It’s sort of humbling when your pheasant-hunting companion outguns you, and does it on four legs, and with no shotgun.

“My lab catches more birds than I do, sometimes,” said Bill Parks of Salem with a grin.
Parks was out Monday for opening day of the fee pheasant hunt at the state’s E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area about 10 miles north of Corvallis along with his two female dogs, Bow, the 11-year-old black lab with a salt-and-pepper muzzle, and Arrow, an 8-year-old shorthair pointer.

“She’s actually caught two in the air,” Parks said about Bow during previous October hunts at Wilson. “She caught one once that was coming right towards me. I couldn’t shoot (for fear of hitting the dog). She got it right out of the air; she caught it in full flight.
“And then she caught another one in mid-air.”

Arrow got her nom de naissance because of a triangle of white fur, point forward, square in the center of her brow.

“She’s got an arrow on her forehead, so I know where the birds are,” Parks about the pointer on his, ahem, pointer. “So I’ve got a Bow and Arrow. She’s (Bow) my retriever, and she (Arrow), she’s my flusher.”

Parks, an Oregon Pioneer License-holder, has been a hunter for “60-something years” and been hunting at the 1,700-plus-acre Wilson Wildlife Area for about three decades.

He said he appreciated the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s pheasant-stocking program, the season for which runs October 1 through 31.

Licensed hunters with an upland game bird validation can purchase a tag for $17 that allows them to take two birds. The bag limit is two rooster pheasants a day, but hunters can purchase multiple tags during the month.

“There’s not too many pheasants in the (Willamette) Valley anymore,” Parks said. “I went to Oregon State (University), and we used to hunt the wheat field after they’d harvest, hunt the fence rows.

“I’ve got to do some work at our church tomorrow, so maybe Wednesday,” Parks said, then smiled. “So tell them to release a few extra birds for me.”

Information about the Western Oregon Fee Pheasant Hunts is on Page 16 of the “2018-19 Oregon Game Bird Regulations” free at Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offices, license agents and online at http://www.eregulations.com/oregon/game-bird/

Henry Miller is a retired Statesman Journal outdoor writer and outdoor columnist. You can contact him via email at HenryMillerSJ@gmail.com

Rooster pheasants like these shown in a holding pen are released throughout October for the fee ...more

Rooster pheasants like these shown in a holding pen are released throughout October for the fee pheasant hunts at E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area north of Corvallis.